ROURKELA: Rourkela Mining Circle (RMC) has reported a total revenue of Rs 1,925.27 crore in 2024-25 amid expectation of the income share going up significantly in the coming years with opening of five large coal mines in Sundargarh district.
Officials sources said bulk of the mining revenue comes from seven operational coal mines in Sundargarh and is showed in two separate heads. Under the ‘mining revenue and miscellaneous’ head, the total share was Rs 1,190.44 crore in 2024-25 including Rs 1,022.44 crore from coal, additional royalty of Rs 22.20 crore from a particular mine, Rs 69 crore from dolomite, Rs 6 crore from limestone, Rs 22.90 crore from minor minerals and Rs 47.90 crore from miscellaneous.
Similarly, under ‘revenue from reserve price and final offer price of minerals’, the total collection for 2024-25 was Rs 734.83 crore contributed by mines of Vedanta, Odisha Coal and Power Ltd (OCPL) of OPGC and NTPC.
It is learnt that the contribution to Sundargarh District Mineral Foundation (DMF) from the RMC was Rs 285.81 crore and Rs 21.87 crore was contributed to the National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET) of the Central government.
Currently, seven mines are in operation in the coal-rich Hemgir block including four of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) and one each of Vedanta, OCPL and NTPC.
Incidentally, revenue share under the ‘mining revenue and miscellaneous’ head in 2024-25 was slightly higher than 2023-24 when the total collection was around Rs 1,137.09 crore. Yet, the collection for 2024-25 was less than 2022-23 when the share was Rs 1,261.10 crore.
Reliable sources informed that coal production from Hemgir would significantly increase as several new mines have been lined up for production in next two to four years. The MCL’s Basundhara West mine has almost been exhausted. The company is working on a plan to open another new mine in Basundhara area and go for further expansion of Garjanbahal, Siarmal and Kulda.
This apart, opening of another coal mine of Vedanta along with new mines of Aditya Birla, Adani, Gujarat Power and Hindalco are in the offing in Sundargarh.
Deputy director of mines Bimbadhar Sethi was not immediately available for comment.